On our only full day in Copenhagen we chose to do the Castles of North Zealand tour to visit a couple castles outside of Copenhagen in area of Denmark known as North Zealand.

Like all other tours so far it began with a short bus tour of downtown Copenhagen. After that we headed visited two castles. The first was Frederiksborg Castle where we spent some time visiting the inside. We then made a very brief stop at Fredensborg Castle before continuing to Kronborg Castle, made famous by Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The first castle was really cool and considered the nicest castle in Denmark that's open to the public. Despite the rainy weather, the only rainy day of our trip, it was still a great visit. The oldest parts of the castle was built in 1560 but the bulk of what's there now was built between 1600-1620. It was the home of Denmark's royalty for about a century.

The chapel inside the castle was unique in that it's one of the few richly decorated Lutheran churches. It's that way because it used to be the site of royal coronations and other special events. This church is also used in knighting ceremonies. We were shown the coat of arms of the only three non-Danes knighted: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Winston Churchill and Bernard Montgomery.

The other highlight of the chapel was the old organ which dates back to 1610 but it's rarely used any more. The rest of the castle was also interesting. What was unique here was the intricate detail in all the ceilings. We found the "spikes" in the ceilings in most rooms to be especially unique.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

Before heading to Kronborg we stopped for lunch where we were shown the traditional building methods of this area. Roofs used to be thatched and strangely enough thatched roofs are back in vogue so if you have money and a house in the country you're very likely to have a thatched roof. Weird.

Kronborg Castle in Elsinore is probably the most famous castle in Denmark. It was made famous as the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet. The real reason for it to exist is that this spot is the narrowest point between Denmark and Sweden. Back then that part of Sweden belonged to Denmark and the king decided that any ships that pass this way between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea were to pay a tax. There was a row of canons on the embankment to "enforce" the tax.

Unfortunately we only made a brief visit and only saw the outside of the castle. Our guide told us that the inside isn't impressive anyway. I guess we'll never know if she was right.

After this visit we return to our ship in Copenhagen along the coast. On the way our guide told us about the importance this area played during World War II.